Scarce Skills Not Scarce Jobs

The “real” challenge technology presents isn’t that it replaces workers, but rather displaces them.

“As with weaving and other nineteenth-century technologies, automation of some tasks increases the value of the remaining tasks, even as new or deeper skills are needed. But workers with those skills are not readily available, nor do robust labor markets initially provide the right incentives for workers to acquire those skills.”

“But in this view, technology is not causing an endemic shortage of jobs except in very mature industries. Instead, wages are stagnant because it is difficult for many workers to acquire the new skills and labor markets do not fully compensate workers for those skills. In this view, skills are scarce and labor markets are incomplete; in the other, jobs are scarce.”